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We examine econometrically the real effects of paper money's introduction into colonial New England over the 1703-1749 period. Departing from earlier analyses that focus primarily on the depreciation of paper money in the region, we show that expansion of the money stock promoted growth in modern sector activity and not the other way around. We also find that bills emitted for seigniorage purposes had a positive effect on the modern sector, while bills issued through loan banks did not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancing the green economy efficiency (GEE) is crucial for building a sustainable economy. How can the rapidly advancing digital transformation contribute to this process? The paper empirically examines the direct and spatial spillover effects of digital transformation on cities' GEE in China. This study utilizes the National E-commerce Pilot City (NEPC) policy as a quasi-natural experiment of regional digital transformation and employs the staggered difference-in-differences (DID) method with heterogeneous effects. The findings reveal that (i) implementing the NEPC policy significantly increases urban GEE by 2.6%, corresponding to a 16% increase in the mean of GEE. This effect is particularly pronounced in non-resource-based cities and cities with high Internet penetration. (ii) The mechanism test shows that the pilot policy positively affects GEE by promoting green structural transformation, enhancing green innovation, and strengthening public environmental concerns. (iii) The study highlights a positive spatial spillover effect of the NEPC policy on the GEE of nonpilot cities. (iv) The adoption of the NEPC plays a pivotal role in advancing energy use and carbon emission efficiency. This paper expands the existing knowledge on the green development effects of the digital economy while offering valuable policy insights for building an "Inclusive Green Economy". [Display omitted] • The staggered differences-in-differences method is employed to examine the direct and spatial spillover effects of NEPC on cities' GEE in China. • This paper uses NEPC as a quasi-experiment for digital transformation. • NEPC significantly improves green economic efficiency by 2.6%. • Green structural transformation, innovation, and environmental concerns are main channels. • Positive spillover effect of NEPC on green economy efficiency in non-pilot cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the world struggles with pressing issues like climate change and sustainable development, affecting health outcomes and environmental quality, the Nordic regionsare at the forefront of major global challenges. This paper investigates the role of human capital, renewable energy use, tourism, natural resources, and economic growth in shaping life in the Nordic region i.e., Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland).Utilizing panel data spanning from 1990 to 2020, the Driscoll and Kraay standard error (DSK) technique is employed to analyze this intricate interplay. The study reveals that in the Nordic context, sustainable economic growth, bolstered by investments in human capital and the widespread acceptance of renewable energy sources, has been positively associated with increased life expectancies. Furthermore, prudent management of natural resources has helped mitigate adverse health effects related to depletion, maintaining environmental and public health standards. The thriving tourism industry has also been shown to influence lifespan in this region positively. On the contrary, the empirical finding contended that an adverse correlation exists between carbon emissions and LEX. This research underscores the importance of a comprehensive and balanced approach that considers economic development, sustainable development, and public health in pursuing longer and healthier lives, providing valuable insights for policymakers and regions seeking to replicate these positive outcomes.The findings of this study are both conceptually reliable and empirically robust, providing important insights for the formulation of environmental and health policy. • Sustainable economic growth, bolstered by investments in human capital positively increases life expectancies. • Environmental problems account for 23 percent of global mortality. • The study examined the long-run connection between ECG, CEM, NRR, TOU, HUC, REU, and LEX among the Nordic Regions. • Grossman's healthcare model influences health economics, explaining people's choices for a better demand of healthcare services • Cross-sectional Dependency Test, slope homogeneity test (SHT), adopting the Driscoll-Kraay Standardized (DSK) panel estimation approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies how centralizing environmental administration affects air pollution in China. China launched a reform in 2016 to empower upper-level environmental protection bureaus to administer lower-level bureaus vertically through personnel control. Exploiting a stacked difference-in-differences strategy, we find that the reform significantly reduced air pollution. The effect was stronger in places where pollution was less likely to be affected by spillovers from other provinces, where local governments initially paid less attention to environmental protection, and where there was less economic importance. Further analysis shows that the reform reduced pollution by strengthening the pollution reduction incentives of local environmental officials, increasing the intensity of local environmental inspection, and promoting environmental compliance by polluting firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic development requires energy support, but the economy that relies too much on high energy consumption and high pollution is not sustainable. However, due to blind investment and low-level expansion of some new energy companies, some new energy industry has overcapacity and low production efficiency, slowing down the pace of new energy industry development, and limiting the development space of new energy companies. Thus, this paper is based on the GIS technology and image quality processing design improvement, around this idea, completed the new system simulation analysis, system development, experimental testing and so on. This paper focuses on the evaluation of the distribution efficiency of new energy industry based on image processing. Natural images have their own unique statistical properties, and interference can cause them to deviate from the original "natural statistical state." According to the image itself and the characteristics of the human visual system, the expression of the image is adjusted, which is more conducive to the transmission, storage and understanding of information. Therefore, this paper proposes a new energy industry distribution efficiency evaluation method based on GIS technology and image processing from three aspects of the nature of natural images, the expression of image information and the characteristics of human visual system. The research shows that the method can objectively and effectively evaluate the distribution efficiency of the new energy industry, and has certain practicability, which can effectively alleviate the bottleneck problems faced above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the causal impact of LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification on energy consumption among federally owned buildings that were retrofitted over the period 1990–2019. Using a difference-in-differences propensity score matching approach, the paper has two findings. First, despite energy savings being an explicit federal goal, LEED-certified retrofits of federal buildings did not have statistically significant energy savings on average. Second, LEED buildings with higher energy scores had greater energy efficiency post-certification, and the improvements were economically meaningful. The absence of energy savings on average appears to be driven by three factors — trade-offs across energy and other areas in acquiring points for certification, possible changes in energy use after the official performance period for LEED certification ended, and improvements in the energy efficiency of all federal buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an atmospheric vulnerability assessment framework based on CAMx that should be helpful to assess potential impacts of changes in human, atmospheric environment, and social economic elements of atmospheric vulnerability. It is also a useful and effective tool that can provide policy-guidance for environmental protection and management to reduce the atmospheric vulnerability. The developed framework was applied to evaluate the atmospheric environment vulnerability of 13 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region for verification. The results indicated that regional disparity of the atmospheric vulnerability existed in the study site. More specifically, the central and southern regions show more atmospheric environment vulnerability than the northern regions. The impact factors of atmospheric environment vulnerability in the BTH region mainly derived from increasing population press, frequently unfavorable meteorological conditions, extensive economic growth of secondary industry, increased environmental pollution, and accelerating population aging. The framework shown in this paper is an interpretative and heuristic tool for a better understanding of atmospheric vulnerability. This framework can also be replicated at different spatial and temporal scales using context-specific datasets to straightly support environmental managers with decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Market transaction data are used to estimate the quantity of specie in circulation. This estimate is used to provide the first comprehensive measure of a colony''s money supply and, along with data on population and prices, to retest the quantity theory of money and measure output growth using the equation of exchange. Output growth is found to depend on periodization and the extent that rising commercialization increased the velocity of circulation. Specie was becoming relatively less scarce as the Revolution approached, and movements in specie and paper currency both offset and reinforced each other depending on the period of analysis. (JEL N11, N21, E42, E51) [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

China's industrial parks have been playing a crucial role on driving regional economy development, but also been posing threats to local environment due to intensive resource consumption and waste emission. Chinese government facilitated eco-industrial development of industrial park, aiming to output more with less environmental burden. In our study, the eco-efficiency levels of 40 Chinese industrial parks in 2012 were assessed and ranked by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). This paper applied indicators relevant to resource, economy, and environment from industrial parks which can well reflect the characteristics of eco-efficiency conforming to the concept of sustainability. This paper introduced how to adjust less sustainable parks to be more sustainable according to the DEA results. The roles of industrial added value per capita, industrial structure, environmental policy and development scale as influence factors of eco-efficiency were discussed. The results show that large differences exist in the eco-efficiency of different industrial parks. It is shown that 20% of the parks are relatively efficient. 47% of the study parks being inefficient in terms of scale efficiency show decreasing returns to scale. Policy implementations for the management of industrial parks were also discussed based on the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accounting for the ecosystem service values (ESVs) and discussing the relationship between the ESVs and economic development can help achieve sustainable ecological development. Therefore, this paper evaluates the county-level ESVs of various land types in China, and depicts the distribution of ESVs in various urban agglomerations. In addition, the nonlinear relationship between ESVs and economic development is revealed. The main findings are as follows: (1) From 2000 to 2018, the ESVs in China decreased, and the decline rate of ESVs in urban agglomerations is much higher than that of China as a whole. (2) The decline rate of ESVs in core cities is much higher than in urban agglomerations, and the decline rate of ESVs is higher in areas close to core cities and lower in areas far from core cities. (3) The ecological Kuznets curve of China has a positive "U" shape, and the ecological Kuznets curve of urban agglomerations has an "N" shape; the ecological Kuznets curve of core cities has a positive "U" shape, while the ESVs of other cities decreases monotonically with the increase of the economic level. • This paper fills the data gap of ESVs at the county level in China. • The reduction rate of ESV in urban agglomeration is larger than the national level. • The reduction rates of ESV in core cities are larger than the urban agglomerations. • The ecological Kuznets curve is "U"-shaped in China. • Non-urban agglomeration cities are still left to the inflection point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been proved to be an important engine of green economic development, yet how it will affect the internal structure of green economy is unknown. The aim of this study is to examine the impact and its mechanism of AI on green total factor productivity (GTFP) from the internal-structure perspective, by using provincial panel data of China from 2009 to 2021 and global Malmquist index. The main research results show that: (1) the development of AI contributes to China's GTFP growth. And this effect is more significant in undeveloped areas; (2) AI promotes China's GTFP growth mainly by improving resource allocation efficiency, while it exerts little impact through the paths of technological progress and scale efficiency; (3) the transmission mechanism of AI on GTFP varies greatly among China's three main regions. In the eastern region, AI improves GTFP mainly by both advancing technological progress and improving resource allocation efficiency, while in central region AI contributes to GTFP growth mainly through technological progress. Compared with the eastern and central regions, AI in the western region plays a stronger impact on GTFP through the channel of improving scale efficiency. This study helps to understand the pathways of artificial intelligence affecting the transformation of green economic growth and formulate differentiated regional policies in light of local conditions. • This paper studies the effects of AI on China's GTFP from internal-structural perspective. • GTFP is decomposed into three internal factors by the global Malmquist index. • AI has positive effect on GTFP through different impacts on internal factors. • Improving resource allocation efficiency is the most critical channel of AI on GTFP. • AI plays a more significant role in promoting GTFP in less developed areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's world, where economic development and environmental sustainability are becoming increasingly important aspects of national strategy, attention to the impact of different economic sectors on climate change is becoming an integral part of scientific research. This article focuses on analyzing the impact of primary and secondary economic sectors development on carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions at the sub-national level in Russia from 2005 to 2019. The aim of the study is to provide an in-depth understanding of the relationships between the dynamics of these sectors and CO 2 emission levels in different regions of the country. Weighted regression and panel data methods were applied to better identify the patterns of the impact. The results show that the size of population and electricity consumption have the highest impact on CO 2 emissions. So that, the expansion of nuclear and gas generation capacity, as well as significant improvement of energy efficiency, are of crucial importance to reduce the emissions. Other sectors have a heterogeneous impact and requires more differential approaches, considering the specifics of regions. Taking into account the significant differences between the Russian constituent entities, this paper emphasizes the low informativeness of assessments at the national level and their inadequacy in terms of improving the efficiency of domestic management, including decarbonization policies. • The impact of considered economic sectors on CO 2 emissions were analyzed in 80 Russian constituent entities in 2005–2019. • Weighted regression and panel data methods were used to catch the specifics of Federal districts and constituent entities. • Population size and electricity consumption have the highest impact on CO 2 emissions. • Increasing energy efficiency and modernization of energy facilities are the most promising solutions to reduce the emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number and total area of nature reserves in China has increased rapidly over the past couple of decades; however, the ability to effectively manage these reserves has not kept pace and conflicts between conservation efforts and economic development have emerged. The Snake Island-Laotie Mountain National Nature Reserve (SILMNNR) currently is experiencing the challenges of balancing conservation with local community development. This paper uses components analysis of human ecosystems (HEC) to examine conflicts arising from the management of the nature reserve and uses a stakeholder analysis to identify and better understand stakeholder inter-relationships in the SILMNNR-HEC. The goal of this study is to identify critical factors influencing stakeholder relationships in order to find ways of relieving conflicts between the reserve management and development. The stakeholder analysis revealed that the key stakeholders in the SILMNNR-HEC are natural resources, the Liaoning SILMNNR Authority, local residents, and enterprise developers; however, there was unequal power among stakeholders in the decision making process affecting the nature reserve. The paper evaluated the conditions and processes of SILMNNR-HEC through a framework of stakeholder relationships where critical factors, such as policy, finance, technology, and labor, and their respective strengths and feedbacks among stakeholders, were assessed and showed unequal flows of power among stakeholders. Two approaches are provided for transforming the unbalanced relationships into a stable and sustainable framework to sustainably manage the nature reserve: the first is by changing stakeholder relationships from opposition to cooperation; and the second by enhancing feedbacks and dynamics among stakeholders. The analysis used in this paper can be used as a model to assess conflicts around other protected areas in China and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green investment transformation is the main interval difference of the Belt and Road Initiative, however, its actual effects are still uncertain. Finding out its utility, mechanism and improvement on green economy may accelerate green development. In this paper, Slack Based Measure model is used to obtain original results, Super-Efficiency model is used to sort effective decision-making units for stronger efficient frontier and Minimum Distance to Strong Efficient Frontier model is used to narrow gaps between non-effective ones and real situations. Then Global Malmquist-Lunberger index makes results dynamisation. Samples of 51 countries joining the Belt and Road Initiative from 2008 to 2022 are used in above-mentioned models to portray green economic dynamics. Then utility, mechanism and improvement of green investment transformation on green economy are studied through econometric model. The findings show that (i) Green Belt and Road Initiative makes green economic development more stable. The standard deviation decreases by 96.53% and mean maintains in 1.5. However, disconnection between a 36.36% increase of pure technological change and a 24.83% decline of its scale effect inhibits technical advance. (ii) Share of countries obtaining green scale revenues reaches 56.86%, which realizes a 52.64% increase. Furthermore, gaps between countries with positive status and those with negative status narrow 68.42%. Positive group accounts for 50% in developed countries and 46.15% in developing countries. (iii) Performance of Green Belt and Road Initiative is better than the Belt and Road Initiative. A one standard deviation increase in green investment transformation increases green economic development by 0.2705 (0.2105), which is a 18.57% (14.45%) increase relative to average green economic development of 1.457. Former's strengths also reflect in different quantiles, lagging effect and heterogeneity analysis. (iv) Green investment transformation of Green Belt and Road Initiative broadens more reliable mechanism (Promote Innovation - Strict Regulation - Ensure Commercialization) based on original one (Improve Efficiency - Decrease Costs - Increase Revenues) of the Belt and Road Initiative. (v) For the green investment transformation with government subsidies, property rights protection, investment environment stability and exchange cooperation, magnitudes of its effects on green economic development have significant increases by 25.03%, 31.77%, 8.01% and 10.12% respectively. The findings not only help understand green economic status, but also support some policy insights for achieving green economy by discovering utility, mechanism and improvement of green investment transformation. [Display omitted] • Portraying green economic dynamics in countries joining the Belt and Road Initiative. • Analyzing interval difference, and then exploring the intrinsic driver. • Distinguishing technical performance and imitable benchmarks of individual characteristics. • Empirically testing effects of green investment transformation on green economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract 1 [1] The papers that appear in the special issue were all contributed papers to the “Environment and Sustainability Forum” that took place at the University of Exeter in April 2011. All papers have been subjected to the standard Journal of Environmental Economics and Management refereeing process. We thank the participants of the conference and the Editor of JEEM, Dan Phaneuf, for his encouragement and advice. We also thank the University of Exeter Business School for its generous support and, certainly not least, the referees who provided invaluable help in the evaluation process of these papers. : Given the current trend in global emissions, the latest round of climate change negotiations at the Durban meeting of December 2011 (for the adoption of a comprehensive global treaty on climate change mitigation as soon as possible—and no later than 2015—and to come into force in 2020) has hardly shown the results one would have hoped for. Even for the most optimistic, it remains unclear whether one can expect a successful negotiating outcome by 2015. There are inherent difficulties associated with climate change negotiations, ranging from which countries should bear most responsibility for a given emission reduction target to the assessment of a globally efficient time path for pricing harmful greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). These difficulties become even more complex and challenging under the pervasive uncertainty of climate science and the uncertainty about the feedback loop between climate change damages and economic growth. During the past decades, the environmental economics literature has provided important insights regarding the design of environmental fiscal policies and treaties but there is a host of issues that remain relatively unexplored. For instance, we know little about the cooperative solution for carbon and trade policies when climate change affects the productive possibilities of countries. In this context, it is also not obvious whether observed policies could be improved upon in such a way that all countries gain in welfare. It remains also unclear what the carbon extraction path should be in the absence of a comprehensive treaty (such as, for example, if environmental policy is unilaterally chosen subject to an agreed ‘ceiling’ in global temperature). Though carbon pricing instruments like carbon taxes, cap-and-trade and hybrids have been well studied, not much is known about their properties in the presence of ‘offset’ schemes such as the Clean Development Mechanism. More work is also required to understand the strategic implications of the uncertainty surrounding climate change and how this affects, for example, the choice of climate change strategy (‘precautionary’ or ‘wait and see’), how uncertainty impacts the propensity of countries to sign a climate treaty, and the extent to which the possibility of a climate catastrophe fosters or hinders cooperation. Understanding political economy issues is also vital in tackling climate change because efficient climate policies stand little chance of being successfully negotiated and implemented if they do not receive the support of the electorate. The papers in the special issue of the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management are precisely devoted to this broad research agenda. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the context of remarkable economic growth and financial development in the emerging economies of East Asia, this paper attempts to shed light on the ecological consequences (CO2 emission) of economic growth, foreign direct investment and financial development in the selected ASEAN-5 economies. Drawing on the data from 1982 to 2014, we employed a set of quantitative techniques for panel data analysis which entailed Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) and Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS) approaches. Our findings indicate that financial and economic development, as well as FDI, have a statistically significant long-run co-integrating relationship with environmental degradation (CO2 emissions) in the under analysis economies. It showed that in ASEAN-5 countries, economic growth, financial development and FDI leads to an increase in environmental degradation. The quadratic term for economic growth showed a negative impact on environmental degradation i.e. Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). Our key findings manifest and emphasise the importance of appropriate policies for more inclusive economic and financial development and sustainable foreign direct investment which does not impede on the environment. Image 1 • Remarkable economic growth, financial development and FDI Influx weighs on the environmental quality in ASEAN. • Financial and economic development and FDI have a significant long-run relationship with environmental degradation. • Weak evidence of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). • FDI leads to environmental degradation in ASEAN i.e. support for Pollution Heavens Hypothesis (PHH) in ASEAN. • Different aspect of financial development has varying impact on the Environmental degradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The introduction of effective solid waste management strategies in developing countries should be considered for improving sustainability at global level. Many barriers should be overcome, concerning the introduction of environmental policies, effective investments, social inclusion and public awareness, which are significant issues in low-middle income countries. The Circular Economy could represent the answer for improving current solid waste management activities worldwide, since denote the principle of waste valorization and recycling for boosting developing economies. This paper is focused on this theme, analyzing main opportunities for improving the current state of solid waste management in developing big cities. The solid waste management of two countries are reviewed: Romania is the emerging country where Circular Economy is becoming a future objective due to economic aids and strength regulations which the European Union (EU) established for the nations forming parts the alliance; as a comparison, Bolivia is reported for evaluating main differences founded for developing recycling systems in a no-EU country. These two case studies could be of interest for highlighting main pros and cons of the participation into a wide organization like the EU for introducing in short terms Circular Economy principles. Moreover, a theoretical Circular Economy model for developing big cities in low-middle income countries is described within the study for effectively comparing which chances can spread for these countries as regard municipal solid waste exploitation. Despite the economic level, Romania and Bolivia are both facing with many solid waste management issues although in different magnitude. For the Romanian case study, it is visible how it cannot achieve the European goals for 2020 due the need of change in public recycling behavior. Bolivia, instead, represents the case where international aids and new investments are required, considering the informal sector into the formal management system as a real opportunity for improving local recycling rate. In conclusion, the comparison suggests how external supports led to implement the principles of the Circular Economy within a developing region. The model of Circular Economy proposed is recommended for developing big cities in order to advance a new form of safe employment, encouraging the activities that are still in action (i.e. informal sector) and boosting the principles of sustainable development. Highlights • A circular economy model for developing countries was presented. • Solid waste management of Romania and Bolivia can be compared. • Municipal and "special" solid waste should be managed in an integrated manner. • Integrated regulations about solid waste are essential for developing countries. • The informal sector plays a key role on sustainable solid waste management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased soil erosion on sloped land has become a significant environmental concern in China that has been attributed to human activities such as deforestation, over-cultivation, and over-grazing of livestock. In order to reduce soil erosion on sloped lands, the Chinese government has responded by implementing large-scale, ecological rehabilitation programs, including the “Grain for Green” reforestation project. This program involves financial incentives to transition farmers into other economic activities with the goal of reducing ecological pressures and degradation. Because of the scope and potential impacts from these programs, detailed research is needed to understand their social and ecological effects. This paper reports on research conducted in Tianquan County, Sichuan Province, and Wuqi County, Shaanxi Province, that evaluates the effects of the program upon local economies and household livelihood systems. The paper argues that the successful conversion of farmland under “Grain for Green” depends upon local government involvement, local economic development, and funding for local projects. Without economic development within rural economies, we conclude that farmers will remain dependent upon continued subsidy assistance to meet the policy’s ambitious environmental restrictions, thereby undermining the program’s long-term sustainability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents estimates of regional GDP per capita for certain benchmark years during the first half of the twentieth century using the method proposed by Geary and Stark. After testing the robustness of the Geary and Stark methodology for the Belgian situation, these estimates are linked to the official regional GDP figures, available since 1955. so that we can cover the whole of the twentieth century. Next we test the suggestion put forward by many historians of a contrast between a 'poor Flanders' and a relatively 'prosperous Wallonia' around 1900. For the remainder of the analysis Belgium's nine provinces are used as a geographical unit to take a broader view than just the Flanders/Wallonia controversy. The analysis shows a dramatic reversal of fortune between the northern and southern provinces. We explain the main causes of this process and assess the effect of state policies on regional development. Finally, the paper considers whether the twentieth century witnessed a process of convergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Consumption demands are final drivers for the extraction and allocation of natural resources. This paper investigates demand-driven natural resource requirements and spatial outsourcing within China in 2012 by using the latest multi-regional input-output model. Exergy is adopted as a common metric for natural resources input. The total domestic resource exergy requirements amounted to 125.5 EJ, of which the eastern area contributed the largest share of 44.5%, followed by the western area (23.9%), the central area (23.0%) and the northeastern area (8.6%). Investment was the leading final demand category, accounting for 52.9% (66.4 EJ) of national total embodied resource use (ERU). The total trade volumes of embodied resource were equivalent to 69.6% of the total direct resource input (DRI), mostly transferred from the central and western regions such as Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi and Xinjiang to the eastern regions such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Shanghai. The northeastern and eastern areas had physical net imports of 1213.5 PJ and 38452.6 PJ, while the central and western inland areas had physical net exports of 6364.5 PJ and 33301.5 PJ, respectively. Shanghai, Beijing, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Guangdong had prominent ERUs which respectively were 101.6, 12.6, 11.7, 8.4 and 4.3 times of their DRIs. The ERUs of Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Ningxia and Guizhou were equal to only 17.6%, 25.3%, 27.9%, 46.0% and 50.2% of their DRIs, respectively. Regional uneven development resulted in imbalanced resource requirements across China. The findings can provide a deep understanding of China's resource-driven economic development mode, and contribute to reducing regional resource footprints and their environment outcomes under the "new normal economy". Highlights • Outsourcing resource requirements within China 2012 is systematically revealed. • Exergy is adopted as a common metric for various natural resources input. • 69.6% of national total resource requirements were transferred via domestic trade. • Regional resource use patterns under the "new normal economy" are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper very briefly surveys current research on Asian economic development, and also discusses several recent papers on the contributions of economic history to understanding development. I then review the contributions of the papers in this special volume of Explorations in light of these two literatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Catering for sustainability is often presented as a legitimate perspective for caterers to promote more equitable economic development locally and across distances through food procurement, integrated with environmental protection and concern for the welfare of customers and staff. Caterers are thus seen as agents responsible for sustainable food systems within their reach. This paper explores how public caterers use their position and productive intelligence in promoting a sustainable food system within the power field of their contextual networks. This article crystallises this ‘agency for sustainability’ as professional identity for sustainability, the shaping of which is analysed in Finnish public catering. The paper identifies eased and positive, troubled and critical as well as delimited and distancing approaches for sustainability, with respective views and efforts for sustainable food systems. The shaping of professional identity for sustainability could serve as co-operative platform for future contextual developments towards more sustainable food systems. Such progress could result in better alignment with political guidelines for sustainability and caterers’ satisfaction due to their heightened professional position reaching beyond ‘kitchen walls’ to construct everyday sustainability. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Large dams represent a whole complex of social, economic and ecological processes, perhaps more than any other large infrastructure project. Today, countries with rapidly developing economies are constructing new dams to provide energy and flood control to growing populations in riparian and distant urban communities. If the system is lacking institutional capacity to absorb these physical and institutional changes there is potential for conflict, thereby threatening human security. In this paper, we propose analyzing sustainability (political, socioeconomic, and ecological) in terms of resilience versus vulnerability, framed within the spatial abstraction of a powershed. The powershed framework facilitates multi-scalar and transboundary analysis while remaining focused on the questions of resilience and vulnerability relating to hydropower dams. Focusing on examples from China, this paper describes the complex nature of dams using the sustainability and powershed frameworks. We then analyze the roles of institutions in China to understand the relationships between power, human security and the socio-ecological system. To inform the study of conflicts over dams China is a particularly useful case study because we can examine what happens at the international, national and local scales. The powershed perspective allows us to examine resilience and vulnerability across political boundaries from a dynamic, process-defined analytical scale while remaining focused on a host of questions relating to hydro-development that invoke drivers and impacts on national and sub-national scales. The ability to disaggregate the affects of hydropower dam construction from political boundaries allows for a deeper analysis of resilience and vulnerability. From our analysis we find that reforms in China's hydropower sector since 1996 have been motivated by the need to create stability at the national scale rather than resilient solutions to China's growing demand for energy and water resource control at the local and international scales. Some measures that improved economic development through the market economy and a combination of dam construction and institutional reform may indeed improve hydro-political resilience at a single scale. However, if China does address large-scale hydropower construction's potential to create multi-scale geopolitical tensions, they may be vulnerable to conflict – though not necessarily violent – in domestic and international political arenas. We conclude with a look toward a resilient basin institution for the Nu/Salween River, the site of a proposed large-scale hydropower development effort in China and Myanmar. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper analyzes the impact of infrastructure investment on Spanish economic growth between 1850 and 1935. Using new infrastructure data and VAR techniques, this paper shows that the growth impact of local-scope infrastructure investment was positive, but returns to investment in large nation-wide networks were not significantly different from zero. Two complementary explanations are suggested for the last result. On the one hand, public intervention and the application of non-efficiency investment criteria were very intense in large network construction. On the other hand, returns to new investment in large networks might have decreased dramatically once the basic links were constructed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper explores the development of water supplies by private ditch companies during the California Gold Rush. Using data taken from newspaper stories, mining camp by-laws, and state Supreme Court and district court cases, the paper documents the presence of institutional conditions that were unfavorable to support private water investments including property rights uncertainty, imperfect capital markets, and significant contractual enforcement costs that may have provided opportunities for contractual holdup by miners. Some evidence suggests that water development was likely discouraged to some extent. Nevertheless, the larger response was a major expansion in water supplies through an extensive ditch system, suggesting that there were factors that limited the ability of miners to capture rents, including various ditch company strategies to limit their exposure to opportunistic behavior and recognition by miners of their reliance on ditch companies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper analyses the causes of Portuguese catching-up to the European core, in the 20th century, within a growth accounting framework. It concludes that investment in human and physical capital was the main driving force of economic growth and that variation in output growth rates are attributable to changes in total factor productivity growth. The paper explains the decline in TFP growth after 1973 in terms of structural change in the industrial sector. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly applied to guide the design of resilient landscapes and cities to enable them to reach economic development goals with beneficial outcomes for the environment and society. The NBS concept is closely related to other concepts including sustainability, resilience, ecosystem services, coupled human and environment, and green (blue) infrastructure; however, NBS represent a more efficient and cost-effective approach to development than traditional approaches. The European Commission is actively engaged in investing in NBS as a driver in developing ecosystem services-based approaches throughout Europe and the world. The pool of knowledge and expertise presented in this Special Issue of Environmental Research highlights the applications of NBS as ‘living’ and adaptable tools to boost the capacity of landscapes and cities to face today’s critical environmental, economic and societal challenges. Based on the literature and papers of this Special Issue, we propose five specific challenges for the future of NBS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic development, accompanying with environmental damage and energy depletion, becomes essential nowadays. There is a complicated and comprehensive interaction between economics, environment and energy. Understanding the operating mechanism of Energy-Environment-Economy model (3E) and its key factors is the inherent part in dealing with the issue. In this paper, we combine System Dynamics model and Geographic Information System to analyze the energy-environment-economy (3E) system both temporally and spatially, which explicitly explore the interaction of economics, energy, and environment and effects of the key influencing factors. Beijing is selected as a case study to verify our SD-GIS model. Alternative scenarios, e.g., current, technology, energy and environment scenarios are explored and compared. Simulation results shows that, current scenario is not sustainable; technology scenario is applicable to economic growth; environment scenario maintains a balanced path of development for long term stability. Policy-making insights are given based on our results and analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the efficiency of the power generation sector in the USA by using Window Data Envelopment Analysis (W-DEA). We integrate radial and non-radial efficiency measurements in DEA using the hybrid measure while we extend the proposed model by considering good and undesirable outputs as separable and non separable. Then in the second stage, we perform parametric and non-parametric econometric techniques in order to model the relationship between the calculated environmental efficiencies and economic growth in attaining sustainability. Our empirical findings indicate a stable N-shape relationship between environmental efficiency and regional economic growth in the case of global and total pollutants but an inverted N-shape in the case of local pollutants. This implies that attention is required when considering local and global pollutants and the extracted environmental efficiency scores. A clear message to policy makers and government officials is that climate change which calls for economic, environmental and social concern should be analyzed according to its dispersion and regional dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While private takings are often used for land development, they also trigger intensive debates, such as in the Kelo case. The most-common supporting argument is that private development contributes a wide variety of benefits to the locality. In contrast, a counter-argument exists that inadequate public oversight, together with profit-maximization motives, leads to overreliance on takings by private entities. Utilizing a dataset of 259 taking projects for large industrial complexes in Korea, we show that private takings are more likely to result in irregularities such as cancellation than public takings. This paper is expected to provide beneficial insights for governments in various countries that intend to use private takings to rapidly promote economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) play an increasingly important role in the process of urban environmental governance, especially in some developing countries such as China. However, existing studies pay little attention to such an issue in China. In this paper, we consider 113 cities in China from the pollution information transparency index (PITI) list released by ENGOs as the treatment group and some other cities as the control group, and use the difference-in-differences (DID) model and propensity score matching DID (PSM-DID) model to explore the role of ENGOs in China's urban environmental governance. The results show that ENGOs play a significantly positive and robust role in China's urban environmental governance. Furthermore, using regression analysis for eastern, central, and western China, we find that the influence of ENGOs exists in eastern and central China rather than in western China. In addition, the results of the Placebo test indicate that the effect of ENGOs shows an upward trend since 2008. We suggest that ENGOs' role should be strengthened in China, and governments at various levels should take into account environmental information released by ENGOs and consider appropriate measures to improve local environment quality using the obtained information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents, for the first time, municipality- and occupation-level estimates of income inequality between individuals in a European country in the nineteenth century, using a combination of several detailed data sets for Norway in the late 1860s. Urban incomes were on average 4.5 times as high as rural incomes, and the average city Gini coefficient was twice the average rural municipality Gini. All high- or medium-income occupation groups exhibited substantial within-occupation income inequality. Across municipalities, income inequality is higher in high-income municipalities, and lower in muncipalities with high levels of fisheries and pastoral agriculture. While manufacturing activity is positively correlated with income inequality, the association is not apparent when other economic factors such as the mode of food production is accounted for. The income Gini for Norway as a whole is found to have been 0.546, slightly higher than estimates for the UK and US in the same period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the economic growth impact of shoreline stabilization policy in Small Island Developing States. Concentrating on the Barbadian efforts to stem shoreline retreat, it explores whether investments in shoreline stabilization and beach amenity enhancement have beneficial effects on medium-term economic growth. The analysis relies on the synthetic control method as a way to systematically choose comparison units (beach sites), which allows for precise quantitative inference in small-sample studies. Our results indicate that in the first three years after shoreline stabilization works were completed, local economic effects, as measured by nighttime lights data, are positive and indicate a positive trend. Confidence bounds obtained by a bootstrapping method suggest that the positive trend is robust in the last two years post-treatment. Shoreline stabilization works may therefore not only help preserve fragile ecological conditions, but further lead to sustainable growth in the local economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing countries, including China, are just beginning to figure out how to balance economic development with the desire to address numerous severe environmental problems. In this paper, we use two enterprise-level data sets – China's Environmental Statistics Database and China's Industrial Enterprise Database – to estimate the impact of a more stringent wastewater discharge standard imposed on all the textile printing and dyeing enterprises in the Lake Tai, Jiangsu region, on labor demand. We find that enterprises which face this new more stringent standard decreased labor demand by approximately 7%. Furthermore, we find that the new standard had heterogeneous impacts on different types of enterprises. For example, our results indicate that the more stringent discharge standard reduced employment in domestically-owned private enterprises by 7.4%, but had little or no impact on state-owned or foreign-owned enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Production restriction is an environmental regulation adopted in China to curb the air pollution of industrial enterprises. Frequent production restrictions may cause economic losses for enterprises and further hinder their green transformation. Polluting enterprises are faced with the dilemma of choosing environmental protection or economic development. Using panel data on industrial enterprises in China from 2016 to 2019, this paper evaluates the impact of production restrictions on both enterprises' environmental and economic performance with regression models. The results show that production restrictions significantly drop the concentrations of SO2 and NOx emitted from polluting enterprises. Meanwhile, production restrictions have significant negative effects on operating income, financial expenses, net profit, and environmental protection investment. The mechanism analysis reveals that production restrictions mitigate air pollutant concentrations by increasing the number of green patents and improving total factor productivity, which also verifies the Porter hypothesis. However, there is a masking mediating effect of environmental investment, which indicates that the reduction of environmental investment hinders the enterprise's efforts to control air pollution. In addition, heterogeneous analysis shows that the economic shock on microenterprises is larger than that on small enterprises. Implementing production restrictions for microenterprises may be a way to eliminate their backwards production capacity. • Production restriction dropped air pollutants of polluting enterprises. • Production restriction has negative effects on business performance of enterprises. • TFP and green innovation are the mediating variables of pollution reduction. • The reduction of environmental investment hinders the pollution control. • The shocks to the business performance of microenterprises are larger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ricardian analyses of farmland values have become a cornerstone of the literature valuing the impacts of climate change on agriculture. However, concerns about the lack of a formal econometric strategy to deal with omitted farmland characteristics have raised doubts about the identification of such impacts. This paper proposes an original method for estimating Ricardian models with plot fixed effects to control for confounding omitted variables. Specifically, we use plot-level repeat-sales French data from 1996 to 2019 to investigate how differences in farmland prices between two sale dates are explained by differences in climate evolutions. We show that our repeat-Ricardian estimates suggest greater benefits of climate change than those found with standard Ricardian analyses. In particular, our repeat-Ricardian estimates indicate that warmer summers benefit French agriculture, in complete opposition to our pooled Ricardian estimates or to the remainder of the literature. Our repeat-Ricardian results are robust to several specifications, climate length-definitions and sub-samples. We provide elements suggesting that the repeat-Ricardian analysis is better able to capture crop-switching towards high-value crops requiring particular soil conditions (e.g. vineyards). Our repeat-Ricardian analysis also indicates greater benefits of climate change compared to those estimated with short-term weather-based approaches, shedding new lights on previous inconsistent findings from the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we highlight the potential of compositional characterisation (NAA) of Khmer stonewares for understanding regional economic development in the Angkorian Empire (c. 9 th −15 th c CE). A central feature of the Angkorian economy was the precocious development of sophisticated craft industries. Of the multiple crafts produced in this empire, stoneware production stands out for two reasons: empire transport networks closely articulated with the location of stoneware production complexes best known in central Angkor and on the Khorat plateau northwest of Angkor; and distribution/consumption patterns of Angkorian stoneware map directly onto the empire's geopolitical extent. As part of a larger geochemical provenancing project concerned with Khmer stoneware production and exchange, we present and discuss results for Cheung Ek, a southern Cambodian provincial complex for production of both stoneware and earthenware. The similarities (shared local resources) and differences in the organization of local production are striking between stoneware and earthenware production. Comparison with previously published Khmer stoneware kiln complexes confirms that each has a unique and readily identifiable geochemical profile. By establishing a geochemical baseline this work highlights the potential of stonewares for developing a deeper understanding of Khmer craft production and distribution dynamics in future comparisons between stoneware production, Khmer settlement and ritual contexts. This elemental baseline will also enable future evaluation of the potential discriminating power of other, field deployable but less sensitive non-destructive analytic techniques such as pXRF and pLIBS, particularly in relation to extending this work to checking production origins of complete Khmer stoneware vessels held in museum collections. • This paper uses ceramics to understand regional economic development in the Angkorian Empire (c. 9th-15th c CE). • We present NAA results for Cheung Ek, a large provincial Angkorian Khmer ceramic production complex in Southern Cambodia. • Comparison with other Khmer stoneware kiln complexes confirm a unique geochemical profile for each. • Two elements (Fe and Sb) enable unambiguous differentiation of different Angkorian Khmer stoneware complexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric pollution emissions have become a matter of public concern in recent years. However, most of the existing researches on NOx pollution are from the natural science and technology perspective, few studies have been conducted from an economic point, and regional differences have not been given adequate attention. This paper adopts provincial panel data from 2006 to 2013 and the LMDI model to analyze the key driving factors and regional dilemmas of NOx emissions. The results show that significant regional disparities still exit on NO x emissions and its reduction effect 27 provinces didn't accomplish their corresponding reduction targets. Economic development factor is the dominating driving factor of NO x emissions during the study period, while energy efficiency and technology improvement factors offset total NO x emissions in the majority of provinces. In addition, the industrial structure factor plays a more significant role in reducing the NO x emissions after 2011. Therefore, the government should consider all these factors as well as regional heterogeneity in developing appropriate pollution mitigating policies. It's necessary to change NOx emissions control attitude from original key areas control to divided-zone control, not only attaches great importance to the reduction of the original key areas, but also emphasizes the new potential hotspots with high NO x emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conversion of natural ecosystems to agricultural land and urban areas plays a threat to the protected areas and the natural ecosystems conservation. The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of the agricultural expansion and its impact on the landscape spatial and temporal patterns in a buffer zone of a protected area located in the transition zone between the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado, in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. The land use and land cover were mapped between 1971 and 2008 and landscape metrics were calculated to provide a spatiotemporal analysis of the forest structure and the expansion of the croplands. The results showed that the landscape patterns were affected by the economic cycles. The predominant crop surrounding the protected area is sugar cane, which increased by 39% during this period, followed by citrus. This landscape change is connected to the Brazilian oil crisis in 1973. The rapid expansion of sugar cane was largely driven by Brazil's biofuel program, the “Proálcool” (pro-alcohol), a project in 1975 that mixed ethanol with gas for automotive fuel. The forest loss occurred mainly between 1971 and 1988, decreasing the forest cover from 17% in 1971 to 12.7% in 2008. Most of the forest patches are smaller than 50 ha and has low connectivity. Throughout the years, the fragments in the buffer zone have become smaller and with an elongated shape, and the park has become isolated. This forest fragmentation process and the predominance of monoculture lands in the buffer zone threaten the protected areas, and can represent a barrier for these areas to provide the effective biodiversity conservation. The measures proposed are necessary to ensure the capability of this ecosystem to sustain its original biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kelley and Evans (2017) found that income inequality (measured at the societal level) did not affect individual well-being in advanced societies but increased individual well-being in developing societies. This paper discusses how this empirical patterning of the inequality-well-being relationship may arise from mechanisms related to the relationship of inequality with economic development (at the macro-sociological level) and to the evolution of emotional reactions to inequality (at the individual-psychological level). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign aid allocation by donor countries to developing economies is known to be motivated by the donor country's bilateral trade interests. Does this apply also to bilateral climate aid? In this paper, we combine theoretical and empirical analyses to investigate how bilateral trade affects donor countries' allocations of bilateral climate aid. Our theoretical analysis develops a simple model to support our hypothesis that bilateral trade has a positive impact on climate aid transfers. The model highlights the terms-of-trade and positive income effects of climate aid, and predicts a positive relationship between donor countries' exports to and imports from recipient countries and their climate aid transfers. The empirical analysis is based on bilateral climate aid data for 2002 to 2017. We employ fixed effects and instrumental variable-2 stage least square estimations (IV-2SLS) with a shift-share instrument to overcome the endogeneity of trade. Our empirical results show that donors' exports have a significant, robust, positive effect on climate aid transfers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between wealth and power has long been debated. Nevertheless, this relationship has been rarely studied in a strategic game. In this paper, we study wealth effects in a strategic contest game. Two opposing effects arise: wealth reduces the marginal cost of effort but it also reduces the marginal benefit of winning the contest. We consider three types of contests which vary depending on whether rents and efforts are commensurable with wealth. Our theoretical analysis shows that the effects of wealth are strongly “contest-dependent”. It thus does not support general claims that the rich lobby more or that low economic growth and wealth inequality spur conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: In 2009, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) implemented new food packages to improve dietary intake among WIC participants. This paper examines how the healthfulness of food purchases among low-income households changed following this reform.Methods: Point-of-sale data for 2137 WIC-participating and 1303 comparison households were obtained from a regional supermarket chain. The healthfulness of purchased foods and beverages was determined per their saturated fat, sugar, and sodium content. A pre-post assessment (2009-2010) of the product basket healthfulness was completed using generalized estimating equation models. Data were analyzed in 2015.Results: At baseline, healthy products accounted for most of the food volume purchased by WIC participants, but beverages were dominated by moderation (less healthy) items. With new subsidies for fruit, vegetables and whole grains, the WIC revisions increased the volume of healthy food purchases of WIC-participating households by 3.9% and reduced moderation foods by 1.8%. The biggest improvements were reductions in moderation beverages (down by 24.7% in volume), driven by milk fat restrictions in the WIC food package revisions. The healthfulness of the product basket increased post-WIC revisions; mainly due to a reduction in the volume of moderation food and beverages purchased (down by 15.5%) rather than growth in healthy products (up by 1.9%). No similar improvements were seen in a comparison group of low-income nonparticipants.Conclusions: After the WIC revisions, the healthfulness of participant purchases improved, particularly for beverages. Efforts to encourage healthy eating by people receiving federal food assistance are paying off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of electricity consumption, economic growth and globalisation on the CO 2 emissions of top 10 electricity consuming countries. Taking annual data from 1971 to 2013, a panel cointegration approach is adopted where Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares (DOLS) methods are used to examine the long-run effects. Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality test is used to explore the directions of causality between the variables of interest. The empirical results reveal that there is a long-term association among these variables; and electricity consumption and economic growth positively and significantly affect the CO 2 emissions in these countries. In contrast, globalisation has significant negative impact on the CO 2 emissions implying the improvement of environmental quality. The findings also confirm the existence of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis, the bidirectional causalities between economic growth and CO 2 emissions, between electricity consumption and CO 2 emissions, and between globalisation and economic growth in the sample countries. A unidirectional causality from economic growth to electricity consumption, from electricity consumption to globalisation and from globalisation to CO 2 emissions is also found. Policy guidelines are suggested in line of the findings. • The paper examines the effects of electricity consumption, economic growth and globalisation on the CO 2 emissions. • Fully Modified Ordinary Least Squares and Dynamic Ordinary Least Squares methods are used. • Electricity consumption and economic growth positively and globalisation negatively affect the CO 2 emissions. • Bidirectional causality between CO 2 emissions, and other three main variables is found. • A unidirectional causality from economic growth to electricity use and from globalisation to CO 2 emissions is revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green innovation activities of enterprises often fall into the dilemma of financing constraints. Hence, it is urgent that the financial system develops and becomes innovative, especially for a developing country like China. Existing literature mainly explores the influencing factors of green innovation from the environmental regulation, economic growth and government subsidies perspective. However, few papers critically study how digital finance influences green innovations. To explore the internal influencing mechanism of digital finance on the quantity and quality of green technology innovation, panel data of 271 prefecture-level cities from 2011 to 2019 in China is used. Based on theoretical analysis and empirical research, we get the following conclusions. First, digital finance can improve the quantity and quality of green technological innovation, which has become a significant driving force for green innovations in China. The results are still robust after the endogeneity tests. Second, the results of heterogeneous analysis indicate that the different dimensions of digital finance can improve green innovations. They include breadth of coverage, depth of use, and degree of digitization. The positive effect of digital finance is most substantial in eastern cities, followed by central cities, and weakest in western cities. Third, digital finance indirectly improves green innovation mainly by alleviating financing constraints. Our empirical results provide policy enlightenment for realizing the coordination of China's urban digital transformation and green economic development. • The effect of digital finance on the quantity and quality of green innovation is explored based on the actual background in China. • Digital finance has become a significant driving force for green innovation in China. • The different dimensions of digital finance can improve green innovations. • Digital finance plays a positive role in green technology innovation mainly by alleviating financing constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the problem of why societies develop differently, a question most recently articulated by Acemoglu and Robinson (2012) . We follow North (1990) in defining institutions as the “rules of the game in society.” The question then becomes why do some societies develop functional institutions while others do not? To investigate this question, we develop and examine a specific type of dynamic game (which we call an Institutional Game). Our point is that complementarities among the choices that all societies make as they develop can help to answer this question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impersonal exchange increases trade and specialization opportunities, encouraging economic growth. However, it requires the support of sophisticated public institutions. This paper explains how Classical Rome provided such support in the main areas of economic activity by relying on public possession as a titling device, enacting rules to protect innocent acquirers in agency contexts, enabling the extended family to act as a contractual entity, and diluting the enforcement of personal obligations which might collide with impersonal exchange. Focusing on the institutions of impersonal exchange, it reaches a clear positive conclusion on the market-facilitating role of the Roman state because such institutions have unambiguously positive effects on markets. Moreover, being impersonal, these beneficial effects are also widely distributed across society instead of accruing disproportionately to better-connected individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

George Clason's self-help essays on achieving financial independence became accepted household wisdom to millions of Americans between 1925 and 1950. Less well known is Clason's legacy in building the largest commercial map company west of Chicago between 1903 and 1931. In his earlier life as a Denver-based map publisher and booster of western economic development, Clason produced millions of road maps, state maps, city maps, promotional circulars and maps for mining companies, land companies, and state and local governments. This paper explores how Clason's earlier career as a cartographer and map publisher reflected the same economic principles he made nationally famous in his later essays about saving money and building capital. I suggest that Clason's maps successfully blended multiple and distinctive genres of commercial mapping, forming a powerful cartographic narrative focused on promoting development in the West that reflected his own ideology oriented around a belief in progress, high modernism, and the merits of individual effort within a largely capitalistic economic system. I examine the strategic partnerships and business relationships Clason forged with private companies and state institutions and how textual and visual material within Clason's maps communicated enduring ideas about the West's economic potential and regional character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world is becoming more and more urbanized at every income level, and there has been a dramatic increase in the number of mega-cities in the developing world. This has led scholars to believe that development and urbanization are not always correlated, either across space or over time. In this paper, we use historical data at both the country level and city level over the five centuries between 1500–2010 to revisit the topic of “ urbanization without growth ” (Fay and Opal, 2000). In particular, we first establish that, although urbanization and income remain highly correlated within any given year, urbanization is 25–30 percentage points higher in 2010 than in 1500 at every level of income per capita. Second, while historically this shift in urbanization rates was more noticeable at the upper tail of the income distribution, i.e. for richer countries, it is now particularly visible at the lower tail, i.e. for poorer countries. Third, these patterns suggest that different factors may have explained the shift in different periods of time. We use the discussion of these factors as an opportunity to provide a survey of the literature and summarize our knowledge of what drives the urbanization process over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine how large and localized resource discoveries affect long-run population growth in the United States, and examine how these shocks interact with pre-existing geographic properties of the discovery site. Using a dynamic event study analysis and developing novel, geographically delineated measures of both amenity value and geographic isolation, we find that resource discoveries cause population to grow both in the short and long-run (e.g., fifty years). However, this effect is largely driven by discoveries in unfavorable locations that might struggle to grow in the absence of a resource discovery. More generally, this paper highlights the importance of considering heterogeneous effects of resource shocks and yields insights into the observed spatial distribution of people in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]